viola courtney - Page 2

Service Bus / Request Forwarding

- by codputer

I'm doing some development with a thrid party that issues either a Get or POST to a public URL that I specify. What I would like to do is set up a Relay service on the Azure Service Bus that my dev machine can listen to. When the request comes in, I want to forward that request as if my web service was taking the request directly from the thrid party service. When I'm ready, I'll deploy the application to a public service, change the URL that the thrid party service is sending too, and viola I should be up and running. What I'm looking for looks exactly like this: Clemens the Master of Service Bus but it's from the 2009 CTP. I'm working at it, but haven't yet got it working using all the new bits in 2012 (a.ka. its over my head at the moment). Somebody want to help? Clemens also help somebody else create a Reverse Proxy using the Service Bus, but I can't seem to find it. Yes I've also tweeted Clemens, but I'm sure he is a busy man! p.s. I know about Application Request Routing, but my dev machine is not on a public URL, I need to rewrite the URL after my client listener on the service bus recieves the message that was relayed from the Server side endpoint.

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How do I keep users from spoofing data through a form?

- by Jonathan

I have a site which has been running for some time now that uses a great deal of user input to build the site. Naturally there are dozens of forms on the site. When building the site, I often used hidden form fields to pass data back to the server so that I know which record to update. an example might be: <input type="hidden" name="id" value="132" /> <input type="text" name="total_price" value="15.02" /> When the form is submitted, these values get passed to the server and I update the records based on the data passed (i.e. the price of record 132 would get changed to 15.02). I recently found out that you can change the attributes and values via something as simple as firebug. So...I open firebug and change the id value to "155" and the price value to "0.00" and then submit the form. Viola! I view product number 155 on the site and it now says that it's $0.00. This concerns me. How can I know which record to update without either a query string (easily modified) or a hidden input element passing the id to the server? And if there's no better way (I've seen literally thousands of websites that pass the data this way), then how would I make it so that if a user changes these values, the data on the server side is not executed (or something similar to solve the issue)? I've thought about encrypting the id and then decrypting it on the other side, but that still doesn't protect me from someone changing it and just happening to get something that matches another id in the database. I've also thought about cookies, but I've heard that those can be manipulated as well. Any ideas? This seems like a HUGE security risk to me.

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Router behind Router--second router (and its clients) cannot be "seen" even after both routers are D

- by Trioke

Couple of terminology I guess I should get out of the way for consistency's sake throughout the post: External Router/Modem - SMC 8014WG - External IP 173.32.144.134 - Internal IP 192.168.0.1 Internal Router - LinkSys WRT120N - "External" IP of 192.168.0.175 - Internal IP 192.168.1.1 - Connected via Ethernet Cable (a really long one, from the basement to the second floor) PC - IP 192.168.200 - Connected Wirelessly via WAP2 Personal. Laptop - Used to try and diagnose the problem, a 4th machine to the setup which won't be part of the final setup once everything works. The actual problem: I've tried setting the LinkySys router as a DMZ'd client on the SMC router, and then DMZ'd the actual PC on the LinkSys. So the DMZ looks like this: On the SMZ, client with IP 192.168.0.175 is DMZ'd. On the LinkSys, client with IP 192.168.1.200 is DMZ'd. No dice. I then tried port forwarding the necessary port on the SMC to the LinkSys (lets just say, port 80). Then port forwarded Port 80 on the LinkSys to the PC. Same as the DMZ scenario above, but change DMZ with port forwarding. No dice, still :(. Now here's where I went stupid--and tell me if one should never do this--I enabled both DMZ and port forwarding at the same time. I fired up Opera--my browser of choice ;)--typed in 173.32.144.134:6333 and... ... Third time is the charm they say? Well, clearly not. Otherwise I wouldn't be here ;). To diagnose the problem, I enabled "Allow remote access to the Admin panel" on the LinkSys router, and specified port 6333 as the port to use. I port forwarded port 6333 on the SMC to 192.168.0.175, and access my external IP of 173.32.144.134:6333 in hopes of seeing the Admin panel... No dice (I think I've ran out of dice by now ;)). So to see where the problem was, I connected a laptop to the SMC via LAN cable, and typed in 192.168.0.175:6333, and viola, Admin Panel access! So the problem looks like it lies with the SMC--But that's as far as I've got, I've done the port forwarding, the DMZ'ing, and I've even disabled the built-in firewall for safe measures, but nothing worked. So, here I am. Unable to connect to the PC behind the Internal router externally, and without anything to go on other than to come here and ask for the wisdom of the the superuser folks :). If any more detail is required, just ask. (Apologies in advance, if questions should never be this long winded!)

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Upgrading VSIX extensions from VS2012 to VS2013

- by Tarun Arora [Microsoft MVP]

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TarunArora/archive/2013/06/27/upgrading-vsix-extensions-from-vs2012-to-vs2013.aspx As consumers of your Visual Studio extensions start to move over to VS 2013, you will have to upgrade the Visual Studio extensions you build for Visual Studio 2012 to Visual Studio 2013 and republish to the Visual Studio extension gallery. Failing which, it will not be possible for your consumers to install and use your extensions on Visual Studio 2013. Objective In this blog post, I’ll show you how simple it is to upgrade your Visual Studio 2012 extension to Visual Studio 2013. There aren’t any reported breaking changes between VS 2012 SDK and VS 2013 SDK, the upgrade usually involves, rebuilding the extension against VS 2013 SDK and updating the vsix manifest file. Walkthrough Download the Visual Studio 2013 SDK - You will need to download the Visual Studio 2013 SDK in order to open up the Visual Studio extension project in Visual Studio 2013. The SDK can be downloaded from here. Install the SDK before you proceed. 2. Once the VS 2013 SDK has been installed, open up your package project. For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll open up the Avanade Extension – Software Inventory in Visual Studio 2013. You will notice that Visual Studio doesn’t load the project but let’s you know that the project needs to be Migrated. 3. Right click the project and choose the option ‘Reload Project’ from the Context Menu. 4. Choosing the Reload Project option brings up an upgrade window, telling you that the upgrade is a one way only upgrade i.e. the project will be changed to work with Visual Studio 2013 and you will not be able to open the project up in Visual Studio 2012. My recommendation would be to create a Visual Studio 2013 branch and upgrading the project in that branch only, so if you need to go back to Visual Studio 2012 project at some point, you have a handy reference in a separate branch. 5. Upon clicking Ok, the project is updated. See below, the following changes are made at the time of upgrade, - The runtime version is updated in the Resources.Designer.cs file - The Minimum version of Visual Studio in the package project file is changed from 11.0 to 12.0 6. Reference VS 2013 dll’s rather than VS 2012 dll’s. So reference Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll and Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Controls.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\ReferenceAssemblies\v2.0 and C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\ReferenceAssemblies\v4.5. If you have any other API references, then change the references to point to VS 2013 instead of VS 2012. 7. Rebuild your solution to ensure there are no breaking changes. Success! 8. Update VSIX Manifest file (the file source.extnsion.vsixmanifest contains the meta data for your VSIX). - Update the Install Targets from 11.0 to 12.0. This basically enforces that the extension can be installed on Visual Studio 2013 version of Visual Studio. - Update the Dependencies from Visual Studio MPF 11.0 to Visual Studio MPF 12.0 9. Rebuild the solution and open up the bin folder for the Package project and look for the file *.vsix file [Microsoft Visual Studio Extension]. - This is basically the installer for your extension. - Double click the installer to launch the installer wizard. Viola! You can see the package installation wizard opens up and gives you the option to install the extension for Visual Studio 2013. - Click Install to Continue - Note – If you run into the exception “23/06/2013 10:42:18 - Install Error : Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.InstallByMsiException: The InstalledByMSI element in extension Avanade Extensions cannot be 'true' when installing an extension through the Extensions and Updates Installer. The element can only be 'true' when an MSI lays down the extension manifest file.” Ensure you have the option “This VSIX is installed by Windows Installer” unchecked in the Install Targets tab. 10. Verifying that the extension has installed correctly. - Open Extension Manager and verify that the installed extension shows up in the extension manager “list of installed VSIX”. 11. First Look at the updated Extension - The links have now been moved to the context menu, so to see the navigation links, you’ll have to right click on the icon and select the option from the context menu. Note – The Avanade Extension being used in the demo has been developed by Utkarsh and Tarun. The Software Inventory Extension for Visual Studio 2012… allows you to see the list of Software installed on the hosted build server right from with in Visual Studio, the extension also allows you to export this list to excel. More details on how this has been implemented can be found here. I hope you found this useful. In case you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out on Visual Studio extensibility MSDN forums or via Microsoft Visual Studio feedback forum. Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Stay tuned!

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To ref or not to ref

- by nmarun

So the question is what is the point of passing a reference type along with the ref keyword? I have an Employee class as below: 1: public class Employee 2: { 3: public string FirstName { get; set; } 4: public string LastName { get; set; } 5: 6: public override string ToString() 7: { 8: return string.Format("{0}-{1}", FirstName, LastName); 9: } 10: } In my calling class, I say: 1: class Program 2: { 3: static void Main() 4: { 5: Employee employee = new Employee 6: { 7: FirstName = "John", 8: LastName = "Doe" 9: }; 10: Console.WriteLine(employee); 11: CallSomeMethod(employee); 12: Console.WriteLine(employee); 13: } 14: 15: private static void CallSomeMethod(Employee employee) 16: { 17: employee.FirstName = "Smith"; 18: employee.LastName = "Doe"; 19: } 20: } After having a look at the code, you’ll probably say, Well, an instance of a class gets passed as a reference, so any changes to the instance inside the CallSomeMethod, actually modifies the original object. Hence the output will be ‘John-Doe’ on the first call and ‘Smith-Doe’ on the second. And you’re right: So the question is what’s the use of passing this Employee parameter as a ref? 1: class Program 2: { 3: static void Main() 4: { 5: Employee employee = new Employee 6: { 7: FirstName = "John", 8: LastName = "Doe" 9: }; 10: Console.WriteLine(employee); 11: CallSomeMethod(ref employee); 12: Console.WriteLine(employee); 13: } 14: 15: private static void CallSomeMethod(ref Employee employee) 16: { 17: employee.FirstName = "Smith"; 18: employee.LastName = "Doe"; 19: } 20: } The output is still the same: Ok, so is there really a need to pass a reference type using the ref keyword? I’ll remove the ‘ref’ keyword and make one more change to the CallSomeMethod method. 1: class Program 2: { 3: static void Main() 4: { 5: Employee employee = new Employee 6: { 7: FirstName = "John", 8: LastName = "Doe" 9: }; 10: Console.WriteLine(employee); 11: CallSomeMethod(employee); 12: Console.WriteLine(employee); 13: } 14: 15: private static void CallSomeMethod(Employee employee) 16: { 17: employee = new Employee 18: { 19: FirstName = "Smith", 20: LastName = "John" 21: }; 22: } 23: } In line 17 you’ll see I’ve ‘new’d up the incoming Employee parameter and then set its properties to new values. The output tells me that the original instance of the Employee class does not change. Huh? But an instance of a class gets passed by reference, so why did the values not change on the original instance or how do I keep the two instances in-sync all the times? Aah, now here’s the answer. In order to keep the objects in sync, you pass them using the ‘ref’ keyword. 1: class Program 2: { 3: static void Main() 4: { 5: Employee employee = new Employee 6: { 7: FirstName = "John", 8: LastName = "Doe" 9: }; 10: Console.WriteLine(employee); 11: CallSomeMethod(ref employee); 12: Console.WriteLine(employee); 13: } 14: 15: private static void CallSomeMethod(ref Employee employee) 16: { 17: employee = new Employee 18: { 19: FirstName = "Smith", 20: LastName = "John" 21: }; 22: } 23: } Viola! Now, to prove it beyond doubt, I said, let me try with another reference type: string. 1: class Program 2: { 3: static void Main() 4: { 5: string name = "abc"; 6: Console.WriteLine(name); 7: CallSomeMethod(ref name); 8: Console.WriteLine(name); 9: } 10: 11: private static void CallSomeMethod(ref string name) 12: { 13: name = "def"; 14: } 15: } The output was as expected, first ‘abc’ and then ‘def’ - proves the 'ref' keyword works here as well. Now, what if I remove the ‘ref’ keyword? The output should still be the same as the above right, since string is a reference type? 1: class Program 2: { 3: static void Main() 4: { 5: string name = "abc"; 6: Console.WriteLine(name); 7: CallSomeMethod(name); 8: Console.WriteLine(name); 9: } 10: 11: private static void CallSomeMethod(string name) 12: { 13: name = "def"; 14: } 15: } Wrong, the output shows ‘abc’ printed twice. Wait a minute… now how could this be? This is because string is an immutable type. This means that any time you modify an instance of string, new memory address is allocated to the instance. The effect is similar to ‘new’ing up the Employee instance inside the CallSomeMethod in the absence of the ‘ref’ keyword. Verdict: ref key came to the rescue and saved the planet… again!

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Building Publishing Pages in Code

- by David Jacobus

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/djacobus/archive/2013/10/27/154478.aspxOne of the Mantras we developers try to follow: Ensure that the solution package we deliver to the client is complete. We build Web Parts, Master Pages, Images, CSS files and other artifacts that we push to the client with a WSP (Solution Package) And then we have them finish the solution by building their site pages by adding the web parts to the site pages. I am a proponent that we, the developers, should minimize this time consuming work and build these site pages in code. I found a few blogs and some MSDN documentation but not really a complete solution that has all these artifacts working in one solution. What I am will discuss and provide a solution for is a package that has: 1. Master Page 2. Page Layout 3. Page Web Parts 4. Site Pages Most all done in code without the development team or the developers having to finish up the site building process spending a few hours or days completing the site! I am not implying that in Development we do this. In fact, we build these pages incrementally testing our web parts, etc. I am saying that the final action in our solution is that we take all these artifacts and add them to the site pages in code, the client then only needs to activate a few features and VIOLA their site appears!. I had a project that had me build 8 pages like this as part of the solution. In this blog post, I am taking a master page solution that I have called DJGreenMaster. On My Office 365 Development Site it looks like this: It is a generic master page for a SharePoint 2010 site Along with a three column layout. Centered with a footer that uses a SharePoint List and Web Part for the footer links. I use this master page a lot in my site development! Easy to change the color and site logo with a little CSS. I am going to add a few web parts for discussion purposes and then add these web parts to a site page in code. Lets look at the solution package for DJ Green Master as that will be the basis project for building the site pages: What you are seeing is a complete solution to add a Master Page to a site collection which contains: 1. Master Page Module which contains the Master Page and Page Layout 2. The Footer Module to add the Footer Web Part 3. Miscellaneous modules to add images, JQuery, CSS and subsite page 4. 3 features and two feature event receivers: a. DJGreenCSS, used to add the master page CSS file to Style Sheet Library and an Event Receiver to check it in. b. DJGreenMaster used to add the Master Page and Page Layout. In an Event Receiver change the master page to DJGreenMaster , create the footer list and check the files in. c. DJGreenMasterWebParts add the Footer Web Part to the site collection. I won’t go over the code for this as I will give it to you at the end of this blog post. I have discussed creating a list in code in a previous post. So what we have is the basis to begin what is germane to this discussion. I have the first two requirements completed. I need now to add page web parts and the build the pages in code. For the page web parts, I will use one downloaded from Codeplex which does not use a SharePoint custom list for simplicity: Weather Web Part and another downloaded from MSDN which is a SharePoint Custom Calendar Web Part, I had to add some functionality to make the events color coded to exceed the built-in 10 overlays using JQuery! Here is the solution with the added projects: Here is a screen shot of the Weather Web Part Deployed: Here is a screen shot of the Site Calendar with JQuery: Okay, Now we get to the final item: To create Publishing pages. We need to add a feature receiver to the DJGreenMaster project I will name it DJSitePages and also add a Event Receiver: We will build the page at the site collection level and all of the code necessary will be contained in the event receiver. Added a reference to the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.dll contained in the ISAPI folder of the 14 Hive. First we will add some static methods from which we will call in our Event Receiver: 1: private static void checkOut(string pagename, PublishingPage p) 2: { 3: if (p.Name.Equals(pagename, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) 4: { 5: 6: if (p.ListItem.File.CheckOutType == SPFile.SPCheckOutType.None) 7: { 8: p.CheckOut(); 9: } 10: 11: if (p.ListItem.File.CheckOutType == SPFile.SPCheckOutType.Online) 12: { 13: p.CheckIn("initial"); 14: p.CheckOut(); 15: } 16: } 17: } 18: private static void checkin(PublishingPage p,PublishingWeb pw) 19: { 20: SPFile publishFile = p.ListItem.File; 21: 22: if (publishFile.CheckOutType != SPFile.SPCheckOutType.None) 23: { 24: 25: publishFile.CheckIn( 26: 27: "CheckedIn"); 28: 29: publishFile.Publish( 30: 31: "published"); 32: } 33: // In case of content approval, approve the file need to add 34: //pulishing site 35: if (pw.PagesList.EnableModeration) 36: { 37: publishFile.Approve("Initial"); 38: } 39: publishFile.Update(); 40: } In a Publishing Site, CheckIn and CheckOut are required when dealing with pages in a publishing site. Okay lets look at the Feature Activated Event Receiver: 1: public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) 2: { 3: 4: 5: 6: object oParent = properties.Feature.Parent; 7: 8: 9: 10: if (properties.Feature.Parent is SPWeb) 11: { 12: 13: currentWeb = (SPWeb)oParent; 14: 15: currentSite = currentWeb.Site; 16: 17: } 18: 19: else 20: { 21: 22: currentSite = (SPSite)oParent; 23: 24: currentWeb = currentSite.RootWeb; 25: 26: } 27: 28: 29: //create the publishing pages 30: CreatePublishingPage(currentWeb, "Home.aspx", "ThreeColumnLayout.aspx","Home"); 31: //CreatePublishingPage(currentWeb, "Dummy.aspx", "ThreeColumnLayout.aspx","Dummy"); 32: } Basically we are calling the method Create Publishing Page with parameters: Current Web, Name of the Page, The Page Layout, Title of the page. Let’s look at the Create Publishing Page method: 1: 2: private void CreatePublishingPage(SPWeb site, string pageName, string pageLayoutName, string title) 3: { 4: PublishingSite pubSiteCollection = new PublishingSite(site.Site); 5: PublishingWeb pubSite = null; 6: if (pubSiteCollection != null) 7: { 8: // Assign an object to the pubSite variable 9: if (PublishingWeb.IsPublishingWeb(site)) 10: { 11: pubSite = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(site); 12: } 13: } 14: // Search for the page layout for creating the new page 15: PageLayout currentPageLayout = FindPageLayout(pubSiteCollection, pageLayoutName); 16: // Check or the Page Layout could be found in the collection 17: // if not (== null, return because the page has to be based on 18: // an excisting Page Layout 19: if (currentPageLayout == null) 20: { 21: return; 22: } 23: 24: 25: PublishingPageCollection pages = pubSite.GetPublishingPages(); 26: foreach (PublishingPage p in pages) 27: { 28: //The page allready exists 29: if ((p.Name == pageName)) return; 30: 31: } 32: 33: 34: 35: PublishingPage newPage = pages.Add(pageName, currentPageLayout); 36: newPage.Description = pageName.Replace(".aspx", ""); 37: // Here you can set some properties like: 38: newPage.IncludeInCurrentNavigation = true; 39: newPage.IncludeInGlobalNavigation = true; 40: newPage.Title = title; 41: 42: 43: 44: 45: 46: 47: //build the page 48: 49: 50: switch (pageName) 51: { 52: case "Homer.aspx": 53: checkOut("Courier.aspx", newPage); 54: BuildHomePage(site, newPage); 55: break; 56: 57: 58: default: 59: break; 60: } 61: // newPage.Update(); 62: //Now we can checkin the newly created page to the “pages” library 63: checkin(newPage, pubSite); 64: 65: 66: } The narrative in what is going on here is: 1. We need to find out if we are dealing with a Publishing Web. 2. Get the Page Layout 3. Create the Page in the pages list. 4. Based on the page name we build that page. (Here is where we can add all the methods to build multiple pages.) In the switch we call Build Home Page where all the work is done to add the web parts. Prior to adding the web parts we need to add references to the two web part projects in the solution. using WeatherWebPart.WeatherWebPart; using CSSharePointCustomCalendar.CustomCalendarWebPart; We can then reference them in the Build Home Page method. Let’s look at Build Home Page: 1: 2: private static void BuildHomePage(SPWeb web, PublishingPage pubPage) 3: { 4: // build the pages 5: // Get the web part manager for each page and do the same code as below (copy and paste, change to the web parts for the page) 6: // Part Description 7: SPLimitedWebPartManager mgr = web.GetLimitedWebPartManager(web.Url + "/Pages/Home.aspx", System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.PersonalizationScope.Shared); 8: WeatherWebPart.WeatherWebPart.WeatherWebPart wwp = new WeatherWebPart.WeatherWebPart.WeatherWebPart() { ChromeType = PartChromeType.None, Title = "Todays Weather", AreaCode = "2504627" }; 9: //Dictionary<string, string> wwpDic= new Dictionary<string, string>(); 10: //wwpDic.Add("AreaCode", "2504627"); 11: //setWebPartProperties(wwp, "WeatherWebPart", wwpDic); 12: 13: // Add the web part to a pagelayout Web Part Zone 14: mgr.AddWebPart(wwp, "g_685594D193AA4BBFABEF2FB0C8A6C1DD", 1); 15: 16: CSSharePointCustomCalendar.CustomCalendarWebPart.CustomCalendarWebPart cwp = new CustomCalendarWebPart() { ChromeType = PartChromeType.None, Title = "Corporate Calendar", listName="CorporateCalendar" }; 17: 18: mgr.AddWebPart(cwp, "g_20CBAA1DF45949CDA5D351350462E4C6", 1); 19: 20: 21: pubPage.Update(); 22: 23: } Here is what we are doing: 1. We got a reference to the SharePoint Limited Web Part Manager and linked/referenced Home.aspx 2. Instantiated the a new Weather Web Part and used the Manager to add it to the page in a web part zone identified by ID, thus the need for a Page Layout where the developer knows the ID’s. 3. Instantiated the Calendar Web Part and used the Manager to add it to the page. 4. We the called the Publishing Page update method. 5. Lastly, the Create Publishing Page method checks in the page just created. Here is a screen shot of the page right after a deploy! Okay! I know we could make a home page look much better! However, I built this whole Integrated solution in less than a day with the caveat that the Green Master was already built! So what am I saying? Build you web parts, master pages, etc. At the very end of the engagement build the pages. The client will be very happy! Here is the code for this solution Code

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Remove/squash entries in a vertical hash

- by Forkrul Assail

I have a grid that represents an X, Y matrix, stored as a hash here. Some points on the X Y matrix may have values (as type string), and some may not. A typical grid could look like this: {[9, 5]=>"Alaina", [10, 3]=>"Courtney", [11, 1]=>"Gladys", [8, 7]=>"Alford", [14, 11]=>"Lesley", [17, 2]=>"Lawson", [0, 5]=>"Katrine", [2, 1]=>"Tyra", [3, 3]=>"Fredy", [1, 7]=>"Magnus", [6, 9]=>"Nels", [7, 11]=>"Kylie", [11, 0]=>"Kellen", [10, 2]=>"Johan", [14, 10]=>"Justice", [0, 4]=>"Barton", [2, 0]=>"Charley", [3, 2]=>"Magnolia", [1, 6]=>"Maximo", [7, 10]=>"Olga", [19, 5]=>"Isadore", [16, 3]=>"Delfina", [17, 1]=>"Noe", [20, 11]=>"Francis", [10, 5]=>"Creola", [9, 3]=>"Bulah", [8, 1]=>"Lempi", [11, 7]=>"Raquel", [13, 11]=>"Jace", [1, 5]=>"Garth", [3, 1]=>"Ernest", [2, 3]=>"Malcolm", [0, 7]=>"Alejandrin", [7, 9]=>"Marina", [6, 11]=>"Otilia", [16, 2]=>"Hailey", [20, 10]=>"Brandt", [8, 0]=>"Madeline", [9, 2]=>"Leanne", [13, 10]=>"Jenifer", [1, 4]=>"Humberto", [3, 0]=>"Nicholaus", [2, 2]=>"Nadia", [0, 6]=>"Abigail", [6, 10]=>"Zola", [20, 5]=>"Clementina", [23, 3]=>"Alvah", [19, 11]=>"Wallace", [11, 5]=>"Tracey", [8, 3]=>"Hulda", [9, 1]=>"Jedidiah", [10, 7]=>"Annetta", [12, 11]=>"Nicole", [2, 5]=>"Alison", [0, 1]=>"Wilma", [1, 3]=>"Shana", [3, 7]=>"Judd", [4, 9]=>"Lucio", [5, 11]=>"Hardy", [19, 10]=>"Immanuel", [9, 0]=>"Uriel", [8, 2]=>"Milton", [12, 10]=>"Elody", [5, 10]=>"Alexanne", [1, 2]=>"Lauretta", [0, 0]=>"Louvenia", [2, 4]=>"Adelia", [21, 5]=>"Erling", [18, 11]=>"Corene", [22, 3]=>"Haskell", [11, 11]=>"Leta", [10, 9]=>"Terrence", [14, 1]=>"Giuseppe", [15, 3]=>"Silas", [12, 5]=>"Johnnie", [4, 11]=>"Aurelie", [5, 9]=>"Meggie", [2, 7]=>"Phoebe", [0, 3]=>"Sister", [1, 1]=>"Violet", [3, 5]=>"Lilian", [18, 10]=>"Eusebio", [11, 10]=>"Emma", [15, 2]=>"Theodore", [14, 0]=>"Cassidy", [4, 10]=>"Edmund", [2, 6]=>"Claire", [0, 2]=>"Madisen", [1, 0]=>"Kasey", [3, 4]=>"Elijah", [17, 11]=>"Susana", [20, 1]=>"Nicklaus", [21, 3]=>"Kelsie", [10, 11]=>"Garnett", [11, 9]=>"Emanuel", [15, 1]=>"Louvenia", [14, 3]=>"Otho", [13, 5]=>"Vincenza", [3, 11]=>"Tate", [2, 9]=>"Beau", [5, 7]=>"Jason", [6, 1]=>"Jayde", [7, 3]=>"Lamont", [4, 5]=>"Curt", [17, 10]=>"Mack", [21, 2]=>"Lilyan", [10, 10]=>"Ruthe", [14, 2]=>"Georgianna", [4, 4]=>"Nyasia", [6, 0]=>"Sadie", [16, 11]=>"Emil", [21, 1]=>"Melba", [20, 3]=>"Delia", [3, 10]=>"Rosalee", [2, 8]=>"Myrtle", [7, 2]=>"Rigoberto", [14, 5]=>"Jedidiah", [13, 3]=>"Flavie", [12, 1]=>"Evie", [8, 9]=>"Olaf", [9, 11]=>"Stan", [20, 2]=>"Judge", [5, 5]=>"Cassie", [7, 1]=>"Gracie", [6, 3]=>"Armando", [4, 7]=>"Delia", [3, 9]=>"Marley", [16, 10]=>"Robyn", [2, 11]=>"Richie", [12, 0]=>"Gilberto", [13, 2]=>"Dedrick", [9, 10]=>"Liam", [5, 4]=>"Jabari", [7, 0]=>"Enola", [6, 2]=>"Lela", [3, 8]=>"Jade", [2, 10]=>"Johnson", [15, 5]=>"Willow", [12, 3]=>"Fredrick", [13, 1]=>"Beau", [9, 9]=>"Carlie", [8, 11]=>"Daisha", [6, 5]=>"Declan", [4, 1]=>"Carolina", [5, 3]=>"Cruz", [7, 7]=>"Jaime", [0, 9]=>"Anthony", [1, 11]=>"Esta", [13, 0]=>"Shaina", [12, 2]=>"Alec", [8, 10]=>"Lora", [6, 4]=>"Emely", [4, 0]=>"Rodger", [5, 2]=>"Cedrick", [0, 8]=>"Collin", [1, 10]=>"Armani", [16, 5]=>"Brooks", [19, 3]=>"Eleanora", [18, 1]=>"Alva", [7, 5]=>"Melissa", [5, 1]=>"Tabitha", [4, 3]=>"Aniya", [6, 7]=>"Marc", [1, 9]=>"Marjorie", [0, 11]=>"Arvilla", [19, 2]=>"Adela", [7, 4]=>"Zakary", [5, 0]=>"Emely", [4, 2]=>"Alison", [1, 8]=>"Lorenz", [0, 10]=>"Lisandro", [17, 5]=>"Aylin", [18, 3]=>"Giles", [19, 1]=>"Kyleigh", [8, 5]=>"Mary", [11, 3]=>"Claire", [10, 1]=>"Avis", [9, 7]=>"Manuela", [15, 11]=>"Chesley", [18, 2]=>"Kristopher", [24, 3]=>"Zola", [8, 4]=>"Pietro", [10, 0]=>"Delores", [11, 2]=>"Timmy", [15, 10]=>"Khalil", [18, 5]=>"Trudie", [17, 3]=>"Rafael", [16, 1]=>"Anthony"} What I need to do though, is basically remove all the empty entries. Let's say [17,3] = Raphael does not have an element in front of if (let's say - no [16,3] exists) then [17,3] should become [16,3] etc. So basically all empty items will be popped off the vertical (row) structure of the hash. Are there functions I should have a look at or is there an easy squash-like method that would just remove blanks and adjust and move other items? Thanks in advance for your help.

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Logging with log4j on tomcat jruby-rack for a Rails 3 application

- by John

I just spent the better part of 3 hours trying to get my Rails application logging with Log4j. I've finally got it working, but I'm not sure if what I did is correct. I tried various methods to no avail until my various last attempt. So I'm really looking for some validation here, perhaps some pointers and tips as well -- anything would be appreciated to be honest. I've summarized all my feeble methods into three attempts below. I'm hoping for some enlightenment on where I went wrong with each attempt -- even if it means I get ripped up. Thanks for the help in advance! System Specs Rails 3.0 Windows Server 2008 Log4j 1.2 Tomact 6.0.29 Java 6 Attempt 1 - Configured Tomcat to Use Log4J I basically followed the guide on the Apache Tomcat website here. The steps are: Create a log4j.properties file in $CATALINA_HOME/lib Download and copy the log4j-x.y.z.jar into $CATALINA_HOME/lib Replace $CATALINA_HOME/bin/tomcat-juli.jar with the tomcat-juli.jar from the Apache Tomcat Extras folder Copy tomcat-juli-adapters.jar from the Apache Tomcat Extras folder into $CATALINA_HOME/lib Delete $CATALINA_BASE/conf/logging.properties Start Tomcat (as a service) Expected Results According to the Guide I should have seen a tomcat.log file in my $CATALINA_BASE/logs folder. Actual Results No tomcat.log Saw three of the standard logs instead jakarta_service_20101231.log stderr_20101231.log stdout_20101231.log Question Shouldn't I have at least seen a tomcat.log file? Attempt 2 - Use default Tomcat logging (commons-logging) Reverted all the changes from the previous setup Modified $CATALINA_BASE/conf/logging.properties by doing the following: Adding a setting for my application in the handlers line: 5rails3.org.apache.juli.FileHandler Adding Handler specific properties 5rails3.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE 5rails3.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs 5rails3.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = rails3. Adding Facility specific properties org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/rails3].level = INFO org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/rails3].handlers = 4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler Modified my web.xml by adding the following context parameter as per the Logging section of the jruby-rack readme (I also modified my warbler.rb accordingly, but I did opted to change the web.xml directly to test things faster). <context-param> <param-name>jruby.rack.logging</param-name> <param-value>commons_logging</param-value> </context-param> Restarted Tomcat Results A log file was created (rails3.log), however there was no log information in the file. Attempt 2A - Use Log4j with existing set up I decided to go Log4j another whirl with this new web.xml setting. Copied the log4j.jar into my WEB-INF/lib folder Created a log4j.properties file and put it into WEB-INF/classes log4j.rootLogger=INFO, R log4j.logger.javax.servlet=DEBUG log4j.appender.R=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender log4j.appender.R.File=${catalina.base}/logs/rails3.log log4j.appender.R.MaxFileSize=5036KB log4j.appender.R.MaxBackupIndex=4 log4j.appender.R.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.R.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss} [%t] %-5p %c %x - %m%n Restarted Tomcat Results Same as Attempt 2 NOTE: I used log4j.logger.javax.servlet=DEBUG because I read in the jruby-rack README that all logging output is automatically redirected to the javax.servlet.ServletContext#log method. So I though this would capture it. I was obviously wrong. Question Why didn't this work? Isn't Log4J using the commons_logging API? Attempt 3 - Tried out slf4j (WORKED) A bit uncertain as to why Attempt 2A didn't work, I thought to myself, maybe I can't use commons_logging for the jruby.rack.logging parameter because it's probably not using commons_logging API... (but I was still not sure). I saw slf4j as an option. I have never heard of it and by stroke of luck, I decided to look up what it is. After reading briefly about what it does, I thought it was good of a shot as any and decided to try it out following the instructions here. Continuing from the setup of Attempt 2A: Copied slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar and slf4j-simple-1.6.1.jar into my WEB-INF/lib folder I also copied slf4j-log4j12-1.6.1.jar into my WEB-INF/lib folder Restarted Tomcat And VIOLA! I now have logging information going into my rails3.log file. So the big question is: WTF? Even though logging seems to be working now, I'm really not sure if I did this right. So like I said earlier, I'm really looking for some validation more or less. I'd also appreciate any pointers/tips/advice if you have any. Thanks!

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